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You can fully customize the appearance of your Ning network site using the advanced customization features found within the Ning Design Studio. The Design Studio provides a simple interface for personalizing many elements of your Ning network. It also gives you access to more advanced customization options, like editing the CSS file, if you want to more comprehensively customize your Ning site.

Access Design Studio

Design Studio is a module on Ning that allows you to change the theme, color scheme and header images of your network. It is designed to provide users without Web design experience with an easy way to customize the appearance of their network, or allow advanced users to utilize CSS. To access the Design Studio, simply sign in to your Ning account and click the "Design Studio" icon located at the top-left area of the Ning menu bar.

Override Existing CSS

Once you have accessed the Design Studio, you can access basic CSS editing tools by clicking the "Advanced" tab. Within Advanced, there is a text box that enables you to override existing CSS commands with your own. This process should be used if you only need to make small CSS changes to your site.

Access Full CSS

If you want to more comprehensively customize your CSS file, click the "Developer Mode" button found within the "Advanced" tab of Design Studio. This will open the complete CSS file in a text editor, enabling you to change every CSS property or add completely new CSS commands. When working in developer mode, it is a good idea to copy the CSS to a dedicated text editor on your computer so that you can more easily edit the file. Transferring the CSS to a text editor also provides a safeguard against the possibility of breaking your Ning site.

Save Changes and Refresh

Once CSS customizations have been implemented, you can apply them to your site by clicking the "Publish" button. Since most Web browsers load assets like CSS files from cache, you may need to refresh your site in order to see your changes. In some cases, you might even need to clear the browser cache if the site is still not appearing with your changes.

About the Author

Jason Spidle is a technology enthusiast and writer. His writing on computers, smartphones, Web design, Internet applications, sports and music has been published at a variety of websites including Salon, JunkMedia, Killed in Cars and The Columbia Free Times. Spidle maintains a number of blogs featuring poetry, short stories and other fiction.